Friday, December 29, 2017

Why real Republicans should 'stripe their ticket'

David Fitzsimmons posted this on Facebook.

A letter from my good friend, Jay Taylor, a lifelong Republican:

They’re not only fake Republicans, they’re fake people.

When my great-grandfather M.D. Taylor of Greeneville, Tennessee was on his deathbed a hundred and twenty years ago, his last words to his son, my grandfather, were, “Wilson, never stripe your ticket.” Never vote for a democrat. My granddad never did.

Neither did my dad, and I, at eighty years old, am a lifelong Republican. As an Arizona advertising man, I had the honor to write and produce Barry Goldwater’s ad campaign when he “re-ran” for Senate in 1968 after losing the presidential race to Lyndon Johnson.

By the way, for the political genius pundits who don’t understand history, Barry was never going to defeat LBJ; this country was not going to have a third president in eighteen months. The party knew it and that’s why they gave Goldwater “his turn.”

I got to know the senator well; he flew the two of us all over the state shooting TV commercials and print ads. He had my wife and me spend election night at his house watching the returns with his family.

In 1980, he called me in late…with three weeks left and five points behind. We tuned it around and he won his last term. In his last book he gave me full credit for that victory.

So I’m a Republican, in more ways than most people. But for how much longer, I don’t know. I am ashamed of my party, and I think Barry would be too. Thoroughly disgusted with the gutless GOP congress, whose suck-up members don’t have the balls to act on what they believe and try to remove this horror of a man we put in the most honorable position in the world.

He’s ignorant and mean. And he’s a child…think about it…you have never known anyone over five who says,
“They’re not fair to me.” He will damage our great country.

I’m in limbo. I don’t want to stripe my ticket, don’t want to change to any other party. But I am sick of my own.

Jay Taylor

Scriber’s reaction/comment:

I appreciate and share Taylor’s disgust, but now he needs to do someething positive: suck it up and stripe his ticket.

Other commenters agreed.

Sarah Fajardo commented:

Don’t want to stripe my ticket? That’s the problem right there. Far more worried about the party than the country. Far more worried about loyalty than honesty or ethics. And truly if Jay Taylor is sick of the Republicans, why doesn’t he do something to oust the bastards who are not only destroying the party but the country as well? Words are cheap Mr Taylor. Action is hard but mandatory.

Bob Dorson commented:

How can you be in limbo, Jay, if you feel this strongly? You and every Repub in this country should be ashamed for continuing to support this dangerous man.

The problem running through all this is the Republicans’ agenda which aligns with Trump’s agenda. It’s not just support for Trump. It is the support for a fundamental set of principles which at heart are cruel and vindictive.

As illustration of my point, here is an interview by Joy Reid on The Rachel Maddow Show about Republicans’ likely response to their own addition to the deficit: slashing benefits.

New Republican tax plan explodes the deficit for a purposeBruce Bartlett, former Ronald Reagan domestic policy adviser, talks with Joy Reid about the expected fallout from the new tax plan and the Republican strategy to blow up the deficit with tax cuts for the rich so they can later argue a need to slash benefits to address the deficit. Duration: 7:41